


marine adventurers

by lancede



Category: Fence (Comics)
Genre: Captive Prince References, Dante is the dead guy, Endless Ocean AU, Fluff, Implied/Referenced Character Death, M/M, Murder Mystery, Past Relationship(s), Pining, Scuba Diving, Slow Burn, Treasure Hunting
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-04
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-02-28 10:44:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 12,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13269789
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lancede/pseuds/lancede
Summary: "Before Dante died," Harvard begins, Nicholas glancing up, "I mean Dante Rossi, he was a student here... before he died, he was on an expedition in the Red Sea. Top secret and all, he found a clue about some sort of huge treasure. I don't know, I wasn't involved. Anyway, it didn't end well, and I doubt we'll ever find out what happened to him."au inspired by the iconic and oddly terrifying video game, endless ocean: blue world





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello there! tbh this is going to be a hella inaccurate fic-- I don't know anything about diving beyond the stuff in the video game so bear with me!

"I've always dreamed of attending your school," Nicholas confesses.

It's a hot summer day. Waves roll and crash against the side of a small speedboat, causing the wooden deck to gently rock back and forth. The sky is blue. The air smells of salt. Nick and Harvard are in the middle of the ocean, just over Gatama Atoll, to be a little more precise. A coral reef.

Harvard laughs gently, stepping away from the helm to join Nick on the deck.

"Are you sure about that? It's been a long time since Kings Row has actually discovered anything. But I guess that _is_ why we're recruiting people like you. We can't let those private diving services steal all the treasure, can we?" Harvard continues.

Nick grins fiercely. "Absolutely not," he agrees, standing and pulling on his diving gloves.

"We don't need front-page fame," Harvard muses. "We just need people who are willing to learn. Bravery, intelligence, skill. Oh, right on time. Here's your examiner."

Nicholas blinks his eyes as a single jet ski zooms its way up to the speedboat, coming to a stop at the end of the deck. A slim Asian guy in a dark blue wetsuit neatly steps over the railing, ignoring Nick's outstretched hand.

Harvard clears his throat. "So. This is Seiji Katayama."

"Nice to meet you," says Nicholas, polite as ever.

Seiji does not respond. "This is the new applicant?" he asks Harvard. Harvard nods.

"Nicholas Cox," Nicholas introduces himself, extending his hand once again, determined to stick to his manners.

"He doesn't look like much of a diver to me."

"What?!" Nicholas splutters, his face going pink. "I'm right here, you know," he growls.

Seiji continues to ignore him, while Harvard shakes his head and ruffles through some papers. "Well, you'll have your chance to prove Seiji wrong in your entrance exam," Harvard sighs. "You have your diving tank?"

"Yep."

Harvard rattles off the rest of the equipment list, and Nicholas duly confirms that he's brought everything.

"Whistle?"

"Yep."

"Flippers?"

"Yep."

"All right. Great. Seiji, are you ready for the dive?"

Seiji glares at Harvard. "No, I was the examiner last time. It's your turn."

Harvard grins. "But I sprained my ankle last Monday, remember? It's still healing."

Seiji glares at him.

"Director's orders," Harvard adds. "You can lodge a complaint if you want."

Seiji glares at him more but doesn't say anything.

"Anyway, good luck! Try to be civil with each other," says Harvard, turning away and supremely failing to hide the smile on his face.

 

The exam is short and _very_  awkward-- and very easy too, Nicholas thinks. Seiji enters Nick's results into a handheld record with a sour look on his face.

"Good enough," Seiji admits, tucking the device in his bag.

Nicholas' jaw drops open. "Good enough?! I did absolutely  _nothing_ wrong, and I know I answered  _all_ of your questions correctly. Just what do you have against me?!"

Seiji gives the barest indication of a shrug, turning and moving back to the surface.

Nicholas grits his teeth, reaching out and grabbing at Seiji's foot. His fingers latch on to the quickly retreating flipper, dragging the diver backwards.

"Don't you dare ignore me!"

Seiji flounders for a moment but recovers admirably, twisting his foot out of Nick's grip and whipping around with a faintly surprised, but moreso angry expression. "What do you want?"

Nicholas swims right up to him and sticks his finger in his chest. "You think you're so perfect? It's not like you could do any better, you stuck-up little--"

Seiji pushes Nicholas hard. His laugh is humorless.

"Me, stuck-up? I've been diving for years, and you come along, an absolute novice, and think you're on the same level?"

"You're just jealous," Nicholas shoots back.

"Hah. You were just lucky you made it this far," Seiji retorts.

Nicholas is about to reply when he catches sight of something dark spiraling away into the depths-- Seiji's bag. Seiji follows his gaze, inhales sharply, and dives. He shoots gracefully through the water, neatly looping an arm through his bag's straps, somersaults and comes to a halt.

Nicholas is taken aback, his eyes widening as he tracks the movements of the dark blue form. He follows tentatively and floats to a much less elegant stop. Seiji is rifling through the contents of the bag. He finds the device with Nicholas' exam results, but keeps searching the pockets.

"Sorry," Nicholas mumbles. "Is something missing?"

Seiji is hesitant to respond, then sighs. "A blue pendant. Small, heavy. If it did fall out, it would have dropped like a rock."

Nicholas realizes how far they've moved from the shallow corals. Beneath him is a deep crevice, dark shadows swirling around an empty abyss.

With flurry of bubbles, Seiji turns and swims away. Nick follows slowly, making his way back up towards the bright sunlight.


	2. Chapter 2

"Nick! Wake up!"

Nicholas mumbles something incoherent into his pillow, hiding from the bright light that's flooded his room.

"Nicholas!"

"Go 'way."

Bobby, a trainee diver at Kings Row, isn't dissuaded. He yanks on the hem of Nick's tank top until the boy is half-dangling off of his bunk, clutching at a bedpost.

"It's an _emergency_!" Bobby admonishes him.

"Huh?" Nicholas mumbles, giving up and flopping to the floor. Bobby throws his wetsuit on top of him.

"Come on, Nicholas. Put on your diving gear, you've got to go," Bobby pleads.

Nobody can resist Bobby Rodriguez' puppy eyes. Nicholas gets to his feet unsteadily.

"Are you up? Great, hurry! Aiden and Harvard are leaving soon, meet at the boat," Bobby chirps, green bandana flying as he sprints back out of his room.

"What's happening?" asks Nick, too late. Sighing, he manages to pack and get out in a reasonable amount of time.

 

Nicholas stumbles out to the dock, where Harvard and a blond guy stand waiting. Blond guy is wearing a gold and black wetsuit-- stylish and probably expensive. The guy catches sight of Nicholas and pokes Harvard in the shoulder.

"Thanks for coming, Nicholas, and for getting up so early," Harvard says as Nick steps on the boat. Harvard doesn't waste a second, and the boat speeds away, skipping across waves lit red by the rising sun.

"Uh, so what's the emergency? And who's this?" Nicholas asks.

Blond guy grins, eyes glittering green. "Aiden. Hi."

"Right. So... why are we suddenly leaving at dawn?"

Harvard tenses his jaw, thinking about where to start. "Well--"

Aiden interrupts, "We're kidnapping you." He winks.

Nicholas freezes in place. Harvard reaches behind him and swats Aiden's shoulder without looking.

"Stop it, you," Harvard admonishes. "Well, the problem is Seiji. He went off alone to dive at Deep Hole."

"Deep Hole," muses Nicholas. "Nice. Why do I care?"

Harvard clarifies, "Where the pendant dropped yesterday."

Nicholas feels a flash of guilt. "Oh, right," he mumbles. "Uh. Is he still not back?"

"The danger of Deep Hole isn't just how deep and dark and scary it is," Aiden yawns, flopping onto a nearby bench. "There are tiger sharks."

"Aiden," Harvard sighs.

Aiden's eyes glitter, seemingly pinning Nicholas in place. "Tiger sharks,  _aggressive_ tiger sharks that hunt there in the depths."

Harvard clears his throat. Nicholas swallows, feeling vaguely relieved as Aiden swings his gaze away.

"That... must have been a pretty important pendant," Nick ventures.

For a while, the only noise is the hum of the engine and the crash of the waves.

"Before Dante died..." Harvard begins, Nicholas glancing up--"I mean Dante Rossi, he was a student here... before he died, he was on an expedition in the Red Sea. Top secret and all, he found a clue about some sort of huge treasure. I don't know, I wasn't involved. Anyway, it didn't end well, and I doubt we'll ever find out what happened to him."

"He just disappeared," adds Aiden.

Nicholas frowns. "What? How do you know he's dead, then?"

"He disappeared several thousand feet below the surface. That generally isn't good for your health," responds Aiden.

"Oh."

The speedboat comes to a slow stop, rocking on the surface of the sea. The air is cool in the morning, and the coral reefs shimmer below in the water. Nicholas recognizes the place from yesterday's exam.

"In any case, the pendants were all that we found left," finishes Harvard.

"There was more than one?" Nicholas asks.

Harvard opens a small drawer in the boat's dashboard. He withdraws a shiny blue cylinder and waves it.

"Director Williams gave me this one to take care of, and apparently Seiji got the other. We're supposed to always keep them with us."

Nicholas frowns. "Why not just wear them?" Nicholas asks, pointing to the cord wound around the object. "They're pendants, right?"

"You ask a lot of questions," notes Aiden, hoisting an air tank.

Harvard shrugs, joining them on the deck and passing Aiden his diving mask. "Cords break. Plus, they tend to make distracting whistling noises when we're diving. The water rushes through them."

Nicholas scratches his head. "Right. And, uh, why am I here?"

Nick watches curiously as Harvard helps attach Aiden's air tank. It's taking a rather long time. "Well, you know where to start looking," Harvard says, "and I really did sprain my ankle. I'm not sending Aiden in there alone."

Aiden's face lights up. He leans against Harvard, draping an arm over his shoulders. "Aw, you care!" he exclaims, staring into Harvard's face.

Nicholas tries not to laugh as Harvard visibly swallows and extricates himself from Aiden's arms, although not ungently.

"Of course I do. Nicholas!"

Nick stands up, fighting a sudden urge to salute. "Yes, Harvard?"

"There's a corridor leading to Deep Hole just south of there-- it's shallow, with a forest of kelp around it. It'll provide better access so you don't have to squeeze between rocks." Harvard points at a jetski a short distance off. "Seiji must have done the same."

Nicholas nods apprehensively, pulling on his gear. The empty craft seems to mock him, bobbing back and forth on the waves.

"See ya, Harvard," calls Aiden, slipping into the water with barely a ripple. The sunlight reflects against the gold of his suit as he descends. Nick is about to follow when Harvard stops him.

"Wait," he interjects.

Nick hesitates at the edge of the boat, as Harvard retrieves something resembling a silver gun. Nicholas takes it cautiously, noticing the weight.

"This is a Pulsar," Harvard explains. "It's an electromagnetic device used to heal marine creatures... and pacify dangerous animals."

 _Tiger sharks_ , a tiny corner of Nicholas' mind whispers. _Tiger sharks with big sharp teeth._

The radio crackles on the deck-- it's Aiden. "Come on, Nicky boy. What's taking you so long? Scared?"

Nicholas glares and swings his legs over the deck, ready to slip into the ocean.

"Nick... one more thing," Harvard says. Nicholas looked up. "Just... be careful. And take care of Aiden."

Nicholas grinned.

"Don't worry, we'll be right back."

And with that, he plunged into the waves.


	3. Chapter 3

The water is bright blue and crystal clear. Sunlight casts dancing patterns on dunes of wide sand. Nick adjusts his diving mask, gradually getting his bearings. The atoll really is shallow. It's only about 10 feet deep at this point.

Just ahead, there's the forest of kelp that Harvard mentioned, bright yellow fish darting about and peeking through the fronds. The forest is densely packed, and Nicholas can't see anything through it-- but undoubtedly, it's the corridor.

"Can you hear me, Nick?" crackles a voice on the radio. "It's Harvard. How's it looking?"

"Fine," Nicholas replies, although he would be lying if he said his mind wasn't still on tiger sharks. "I think I've found the entrance."

"All right. Catch up with Aiden, and remember, you can't be too careful. Keep your guard up," warns Harvard.

A quick crackling sound as the channel changes. "That's right, Nicky boy. Hurry up or the sharks will eat you for breakfast," taunts Aiden.

Nick growls and kicks forward, butting his way through the forest. Strands of kelp smack into his mask, but Nick shakes them off and swims faster.

The forest thins as Nicholas makes his way through, and soon enough, he's confronted with a rocky passageway, feeding into a large crevice in the rocks. Aiden is waiting for him there, and he greets Nick with a jaunty wave.

"Ready for your first tiger shark viewing?" he teases. His flippant attitude is almost partly encouraging, but still mostly annoying.

"Will you stop with the shark jokes?" Nick groans.

Aiden shrugs, his gold-and-black shoulders moving up and down. "Well, it's true. Even the local divers don't come here."

Nick glares at him, and Aiden raises his arms defensively. Nick can just tell he's grinning.

The two swim through the passage slowly and pause on a stony ledge, staring down into the abyss. Here, the water is a dusky blue, scattered rays of sunlight lending color to the depths. The divers descend slowly. The seafloor is hundreds and hundreds of feet below them, and both feel weightless and exposed as their flippers tread above emptiness.

Or not quite emptiness.

Beneath their feet twirls a single, sinister silhouette.

Tiger shark.

Aiden deftly flicks on his light, and Nicholas swears as the beam catches on a very, very distinctive dorsal fin. Okay, he'd been half expecting it, but he never really thought... He fumbles for the Pulsar Harvard gave him, trying in vain to pull it loose, but Aiden's arm reaches out and stops him.

"Stay still," Aiden mutters. Apart from that movement, Aiden is utterly motionless. Cool as ice. His playboy demeanor has vanished, his green eyes tracking the shark as it moves.

Nicholas fights to calm his heartbeat as the tiger shark begins moving in their direction. Aiden's light skims across its scarred skin, its gills covering its leathery side, its two beady eyes. The shark glides back and forth restlessly. Looking for prey.

"Nicholas? Aiden? Have you found Seiji yet?"

If Nicholas isn't spooked yet, he is now. Before he can help himself, his eyes flick downwards, scanning the depths for something, anything. Maybe a scrap of wetsuit, floating in the current. As if sensing his thoughts, Aiden tightens his grip on his arm, but Nick's eyes continue wandering.

The shark continues circling. It could notice them at any moment.

"We've found a tiger shark. Hungry and likely aggressive," explains Aiden. "It's dicey."

Nicholas jerks back, and this time it's Aiden's time to swear.

"I said, stay still!" Aiden hisses.

"No. There," Nicholas whispers, very, very slowly raising his arm to point at a white diving tank glinting beneath a boulder. He recognizes it from the day before.

It's Seiji's.

 

"What? What's happened?" demands Harvard. Nicholas is holding his breath, still trying and failing to steady his racing heart.

Aiden doesn't outwardly react. He remains silent, weighing his options. Then his eyes narrow as he makes his decision. Aiden flicks his light away from the tiger shark-- just for an instant-- and focuses on the diving tank, illuminating pale skin and a blue wetsuit.

A hand reaches up. Waves.

Seiji is alive.

Immediately, Aiden flicks his light back to the shark, scanning the waters for the deadly form, but finds nothing.

"Aiden? Nick? Can you hear me?" Harvard repeats, his voice becoming strained. Aiden exhales.

"Yes. Seiji's here too, but he's hiding or trapped," Aiden responds, continuing to search the water with his light. "We've lost the shark."

Back on deck, a tiny corner of Harvard's heart wants to tell them to swim for it, but Seiji is still in there. They can't leave him.

"Okay. One of you, go grab Seiji," urges Harvard. "The other, stand guard with the Pulsar and--"

Maybe it's instinct, maybe it's some sort of intuition, but Nicholas feels that something is not quite right.

"Move!" he yells, twisting aside and pulling Aiden with him.

The tiger shark erupts out of the depths, missing them narrowly. A gray tail whips by, turns. Black beady eyes fix on them. The shark readies to charge again.

There's no time for thank-yous. Aiden grabs the Pulsar from Nicholas' belt and aims.

"Go," Aiden tells Nicholas, voice steady. "Get Seiji and get out."

"But--"

"Go!"

Nick kicks away, and the shark lunges.


	4. Chapter 4

Nick fights the urge to look over his shoulder as he dives deeper and deeper, heading towards the tiny figure beneath the rocks. Time is ticking-- every moment he spends is another moment Aiden's spending with the tiger shark.

"Seiji!" Nicholas hollers. "Can you hear me?"

A thumbs up comes from the figure. Seiji motions to his communications-- crushed, miraculously functioning at all -- and to the tangle of tubes and cords on his back, lodged halfway into the boulder. Carefully, Nick moves closer and begins to tug at the knots. He's caught off guard by the dance of lights across Seiji's mask, white arcs and multicolored ribbons of Pulsar energy reflecting from Aiden's fight with the shark up above. Seiji's eyes catch his, and Nicholas looks away.

He needs to hurry. With a final yank, he pulls Seiji's equipment loose, and the two of them immediately swim back towards the surface.

They're just in time to witness Aiden's final blast, the Pulsar emitting a steady stream of energy and nailing the tiger shark spot on. It works-- the shark glides away, but slowly, more calmly.

Nick watches curiously as the tension rolls out of Aiden's shoulders.

"Perfect shot, if I do say so myself," Aiden declares with a smile. "Seiji. 'Sup?"

Seiji nods briefly, and the three of them make their way back to the boat.

"We haven't heard from Harvard in a while," Aiden muses. "He must be worried."

 

"You're back," Harvard breathes as Nick climbs back on board the boat. He's followed closely by Seiji, who starts removing his mangled gear.

"I was so worried, my comms ran out of batteries--" Harvard stops cold. "Where's Aiden?"

Nicholas is about to reassure Harvard when he spies a gold-and-black form creeping over the boat's railing, mask and gear discarded. Aiden's holding his finger over his lips as he sneaks up behind Harvard. His waterlogged hair has been pulled back in a hasty ponytail.

Nick facepalms. Did the guy know no limits? One moment a heroic sharpshooter, another a completely immature prankster.

"Boo!" Aiden screams-- the scream petering into more of a yelp as Harvard whips around and pins him to the railing.

"Don't _do_ that," Harvard whispers. Nicholas expects Aiden to shrug and grin sheepishly, but he just stands there, frozen.

Seiji coughs, and Harvard takes a step back awkwardly. Aiden rakes a hand through his hair, finding the speedboat's deck suddenly very interesting.

"I got the pendant back," Seiji announces. He tugs a small object out of his pocket.

The words are so anticlimatic, and so _not_ the heartfelt appreciation that Nick is expecting. Apart from a few strands of hair sticking up haphazardly, Seiji is seemingly none the worse for wear. Though he'd promised himself that he wouldn't snap at Seiji again, Nick feels he's justified in this case.

"A _thank you_ would be nice," Nick interrupts.

Seiji observes Nick coolly, tempted to bite the bullet and apologize.

"Well, thank you," Seiji replies in clipped tones. Nicholas is appeased, reducing the force of his glare, his posture relaxing ever so slightly. A memory flashes into Seiji's mind: Nick's eyes, amber brown and determined, gazing straight into his face as he pulls Seiji from the boulders.

Nicholas is looking at him now, and he's not really angry anymore, and it's too... awkward? Nerve-wracking? Something? Seiji can't stand it.

"Aiden," Seiji adds under his breath, and Nicholas launches himself at Seiji ( _"Thank you Aiden"?! The nerve_ ), fists swinging wildly in the air, but Harvard intercepts him and holds him back.

"Guys, stop it. Nick, we don't need another fight right now," Harvard commands, and Nick stops struggling, reluctantly. "Seiji--"

"It was just bad luck my gear got caught," continues Seiji. Nick is giving him that murderous glare again, which suits Seiji just fine. "And worse luck the tiger shark turned up."

"Arrogant asshole," Nicholas mutters, Harvard's hand still on his shoulder.

"Bros, broskis, calm down," Aiden coaxes. He steps forward and plucks the blue stone from Seiji's hand, holding it up to the light. "We've got Dante's precious whistle back, let's just go home and have some cupcakes, hmm?"

"Pendant," corrects Seiji absentmindedly, reaching for the stone.

"That makes whistle noises. So it's a whistle," Aiden insists, holding it further away. "Huh. So yours is just like this one, Harvard?"

Seiji wrenches Aiden's elbow and snatches the stone back.

"Uh, I think so," Harvard responds. He passes his own pendant to Nicholas.

"That's weird," Nick notices, pausing. "They have the same pattern on both sides. Kind of like--"

"They fit together," finishes Seiji.

Then silence. Nicholas and Seiji hesitate, then move towards each other and raise their hands, touching the cylinders together and twisting. There is an audible _click_ as the pendants shift and meld into a single piece.

"Weird," concludes Nicholas.

"Romantic!" Aiden exclaims, and both divers drop the pendant as if they've been burned, backing away from each other. The pendant hits the deck with a heavy thump, and Nicholas scowls at Seiji for good measure before kneeling to pick the cylinder up again.

_"The road to the truth is the song of dragons,_ " Nick reads with a puzzled frown. The engraved words are now visible on the outside of the new pendant, small letters twining around the capsule to form a short verse.

"Is that a message from Dante?" muses Nicholas.

"Dante's dead," Seiji retorts.

"Wait," Harvard says, interrupting Nick mid-insult. "I think I've heard that verse somewhere before. We should ask Lewis if it sounds familiar." He turns to Nick. "You haven't met her yet, have you? She's a trader who travels around these islands."

"She knows _everything_ ," Aiden stage-whispers.

Seiji nods. "I agree. Let's return to the school."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> dunno Coach Lewis' first name?? guess I'll just update later  
> also erm just pretend google, phones etc doesn't exist yet  
> some notes about KR diving school:  
> \- it's not really like a high school, it has ranks instead of grades-- more like a karate academy I guess  
> \- slight aging up of the characters I guess  
> \- it trains absolute beginners like bobby and also more advanced ppl like nick  
> \- experts like harvard, aiden, seiji, etc are mentors while also getting more experience  
> \- coach/director williams oversees the whole thing


	5. Chapter 5

_A mysterious pendant-- a keepsake left from Dante. Was he the one who engraved it with "the road to the truth is the song of dragons"? What could it mean? And what could it have to do with this dragon song? Also, why is Nicholas so annoying?_

"Seiji, trader's here!"

Seiji closes the dive log with a snap, shoving it into his desk and exiting his room.

A young woman-- squarish black glasses, red bangs and ponytail-- is pulling up to the dock on a small jetski. Harvard and Aiden are there to greet trader Lewis, leading her to a small patio area not far off. It's straw-roofed, with a nice view of the ocean and the blue afternoon sky.

Seiji spots Nicholas also making his way over and quickens his pace. Nick beats him there (but only just), and Seiji is forced to endure long seconds of Nick's triumphant grin.

"Hey, Seiji!" Lewis chirps, and Seiji gives her a polite nod. Nick's grin morphs into his usual furious glare, barely making it back to a somewhat-neutral smile as the trader turns to Nick.

"So this is the new recruit? Nicholas, right?" she asks. They shake hands; Seiji rolls his eyes. Introductions are made, and small talk is gone through. Seiji fights a yawn as the crew slowly, very slowly, gets to the point.

"We were wondering if you could take a look at something for us," Harvard finally says, and Lewis nods.

"Sure. What is it?"

Nicholas hands over the pendant-- he's held on to it, apparently-- and Lewis appraises the item.

"Hmm. Made of lapis lazuli... quite similar to traditional charms from East Asian countries. But these carvings..." Lewis points to a series of scratches and gaps that Seiji had assumed to be ornamental, "...aren't associated with those cultures at all. And... hmm. This is very old. _Extremely_ old. Oh, but look at this engraving-- English, carved more recently."

"Yeah, we think that Dante might have inscribed it while was still alive," explains Aiden.

"Dante? Dante Rossi?"

"Yep. He died in an accident relating to this," Aiden clarifies.

"Oh. I knew him. An accident? How terrible, he was a nice kid."

"I'm sure I've heard that verse somewhere before, though," mutters Harvard. " _The road to the truth is the song of dragons..._ "

"... _and the Cyclades suffer under the shroud of Poseidon's curse,_ " recites Lewis.

Harvard snaps his fingers.

"That's it!"

"It's from an epic written by a 19th century poet. The verse is about Valka Castle, said to have sunk to the bottom of the Aegean Sea overnight along with all its treasures, where it remains to this day. Did Dante have a copy?" Lewis asks.

"He did have a lot of old books in his room," Aiden volunteers. "Bobby might still have them..."

"But if Dante did leave us this message, is he telling us to actually find Valka Castle?" Seiji muses.

"It'll be dangerous," cautions Harvard. "After today, I'm not--"

He is muffled by Aiden sticking his hand over Harvard's mouth. Aiden grins at Lewis innocently.

"Nah, it's a great idea! Anything involving treasure hunting, I'm in!" Aiden exclaims.

"I think you should go for it," says Lewis. Her eyes sparkle with excitement. "It may be risky, but you know, Kings Row isn't any old swim school. And at the very least I'd like to find out what really happened to Dante. Besides, you can take a trainee along too. It'll be a good experience. I'm sure the director would approve."

"A visit to the Aegean  _would_ be a good experience," Harvard admits. "But realistically, we only have funds to fly maybe three divers over. Fair enough?"

Everyone nods.

"All right, then. Seiji and I will go as monitors, and--" Harvard hesitates.

"Nicholas will go along as the diving noob," finishes Aiden smoothly.

Nick crosses his arms, but decides not to say anything as he sees the look passing between Harvard and Aiden.

"That's settled, then," Harvard says. "I'll check with the director and purchase the plane tickets, and if everything goes well, we should be able to dive by next weekend."

 

"Why do airplanes feel so small?" Nicholas muses to no one in particular. Seiji, on his right, is asleep, and so is Harvard an aisle over.

Nick is extremely bored, flipping Dante's old copy of the Valka Castle epic over and over in his hands. Turns out Bobby had kept all of Dante's books-- and then it was the small matter of poring through what was practically a small library to find the volume they wanted.

But they'd found it.

With a heavy sigh, Nick opens the cover of the book yet again. He'd already went through it dozens of times in the past hour, but unfortunately, if anyone was suited to be a detective, it was _not_ Nicholas. There were just too many interesting pieces of evidence to keep track of!

Was the clue to solving the mystery on a certain dog-eared corner-- a doodle of a shark with a mustache? Could the clue be on the title page itself-- above the Sharpied _Dante Rossi_ , a strangely named past owner scratched out: _the gemini xoxo_. Or maybe the clue was this hastily scribbled note-- "whirlpool check tide pods." Or was it in the thrice-circled stanza on the 3rd page? Or were all of those clues??

Yep, Nick had no idea.


	6. Chapter 6

Nick, Seiji, and Harvard have arrived at the Aegean Sea.

It's just past midnight. Harvard is usually transparent about these things, but when Seiji asks why they're diving at night, he shrugs.

"A friend's advice," is all he says, and eventually Seiji leaves it at that.

They float in a small rented fishing boat in the Ciceros Strait, where most of the events in Dante's old book occured. Nicholas paces the deck back and forth, and Seiji perches on a bench. Harvard fiddles with something up at the front of the boat.

"I wonder why Dante sent us here," Seiji murmurs, gazing across the shiny black waves.

"Hello there!"

Seiji rockets up, nearly knocking into Nick as a blond-haired guy surfaces from the ocean. For a moment, it seems as if Aiden has somehow followed them, but it quickly becomes clear that the diver is a stranger. His hair is lighter and shorter, and his eyes, rather than green, are a bright blue-- the same color as a clear sea. He wears a white diving suit, luminescent against the night sky. The diver treads the water effortlessly.

"Well! This must be a boatload of newcomers. Nice dinghy. Mind if I come aboard?"

"Who the heck are you?" Nicholas barks.

The diver looks scandalized. He clambers up onto the deck and draws himself to his full height.

"Don't you recognize me? I'm Jesse Coste!" he claims. Nicholas narrows his eyes, his urge to kill rising.

"Never heard of him," Seiji comments, and Nick nods his head viciously in agreement.

Harvard coughs slightly. "Jesse Coste? You're that famous American salvager."

"Right," Jesse says, smirking. "Anyway, I've been here for the past few months, searching for Valka Castle."

"Seriously? That's why we're here too," counters Nick.

Jesse laughs a little.

"The waters here aren't for beginners. There are relentless giant whirlpools, reefs crawling with poisonous fish and great white sharks. They'll swallow you up in one bite!"

 _This guy's as annoying as Aiden_ , Nick thinks.

"Not to mention the one infamous shark who pretty much owns the place. The giant man-eater Thanatos? Ever heard of her? This is her territory. Anyway, I think it's pretty clear who has the skills to find the castle first. Me!"

"No way!" Nick argues, getting up in Jesse's space.

" _We'll_ find it first," corrects Seiji.

Jesse is unfazed. "Fine. You want to bet on it?"

"Oh, you're on," snarls Nick.

Jesse laughs. "Sure. Okay, if you find it before me, I'll scrub your boat with my toothbrush. Just don't cry when I find it first! See you around."

The diver slips back into the ocean, Nick sending him on his way with a rude gesture.

"Can you _believe_ his nerve?" growls Nicholas. Seiji shakes his head in disgust.

"We're going to find Valka Castle first," Seiji states, "and we're going to take photos as Jesse scrubs the deck."

Nick grins fiercely and looks to Harvard for affirmation. Harvard smiles innocently.

"I have confidence in you two!" Harvard encourages them. "It won't be easy, but I'm sure you'll figure something out. Just keep in mind Jesse's warning about the shark! Call me if there's trouble and I'll pick you up."

 

As the two get ready to dive, for once in total agreement, neither notices a certain white-suited salvager resurfacing a few meters away. Harvard waves at him.

 

"That's... a lot of sharks," Nick mutters, counting not only two, but three, four, five... well, _many_ dark silhouettes swimming around the underwater canyon.

"It's fine. Those are just hammerheads, almost no reports of attacks. Just don't startle them," Seiji reassures him.

Nick nods warily, and the two swim forward, moving deeper into the canyon. Ciceros Strait feels different from anywhere else Nicholas has dived. The water is more heavy, more sluggish. There's all sorts of strange fish around here, with thick bodies and gray matte scales.

Nick hasn't forgiven Seiji for being a total jerk, exactly, but he's willing to put it aside and to work together to get back at Jesse.

Seiji and Nicholas continue swimming, following a terraced cliff wall that Dante's book has described. Soon enough, they find themselves in some old ruins. Greek-styled columns dot the rocky seafloor.

"Is this Valka Castle?" Nick wonders. "That was way too easy."

Seiji unfurls a map. "No, I don't think so. We're... here, the Triton Village Ruins."

Nick taps his chin, looking around the old stones and columns for a clue, any clue. Strange... there's a soft glow of light emanating from a statue.

A clue?

Wait, no, the light is from behind the statue. It's a flashlight.

"Hey! There's somebody here!" calls Nicholas.


	7. Chapter 7

"Hey! There's somebody here!" calls Nicholas.

Caught, Jesse Coste waves a hand merrily and makes his way towards them. A crackle of static, and Jesse enters the comms channel.

"Nice to see you again!" he calls.

"You _followed_ us," Seiji accuses, and Jesse opens his eyes wide.

"What? No, I didn't! I mean... technically, yes, but for a different--"

Nick swims closer, and very deliberately pokes Jesse in the chest.

"You're scrubbing our boat," Nick snarls.

"With your toothbrush," Seiji adds.

"Fine, fine," Jesse sighs. "Look, you two need to stay on your guard. You're here a lot earlier than I expected. She usually shows up right about now."

"What? Who?" Seiji asks.

"Thanatos. The shark. The man-eater. Weren't you listening to me earlier? No, wait," he says, holding up a hand. "Now is really not the time to argue. Just tell Harvard to come over and get out."

"You followed us, and now you're trying to steal all the treasure," Nicholas counters. "No way."

Jesse pushes his fingers through his hair in frustration. "Look, I realize-- okay, fine. This is not working. Whatever. I'm calling Harvard, then."

"What?!" Nicholas growls.

Seiji pushes forward, also glaring at Jesse. "How do you know his name?"

"Harvard, Nicholas, Seiji," Jesse mutters, flicking through the communication channels. "Right. He's not responding. Don't tell me he forgot to change his comm's batteries."

"Or _you_ sabotaged them!" Nicholas accuses. "Why are you following us? Why are you really here? Did _you_ murder Dante?!" Nicholas challenges, jabbing his finger straight at Jesse.

Jesse flinches.

"GUILTY!" Nicholas crows.

"Seiji, come on," Jesse reasons. Seiji stares at the salvager coldly. "Thanatos is going to be here soon. I won't stay here, I promise I'll come back to the boat with you, okay?"

"So you can kill off all three of us?! No way!" protests Nick.

"Uh, Nicholas," Seiji mutters, poking Nick's shoulder.

"I didn't murder Dante, okay?" yells Jesse. "Look, Harvard told me to do this. I just got you two to stop arguing and then I followed you to make sure you didn't get into messes like this one!"

"A likely story!" counters Nicholas.

" _How is that a likely story_ ?!" Jesse shouts.

"Nicholas, over there--" Seiji tells him with a bit more urgency.

"Fine, it's not really a likely story," Nick admits. "But... there are all sorts of holes in it! You expect us to believe you flew halfway around the world for Harvard?"

"I told you I've been here for months!"

"Guarding the evidence!"

"Nick, stop it! He's right," Seiji interrupts, and Nick is about to gleefully add Seiji to his conspiracy theory, when Seiji takes his shoulders forcibly and swivels him around to see an enormous great white shark gliding leisurely towards them.

Nick had thought that regular sharks were intimidating, three or four meters long, twice as big as him.

This one was easily seven meters long.

Bigger than their boat.

Nick is the one carrying the Pulsar; he hefts it halfheartedly. But against this massive and monstrous behemoth, it seems tiny, insignificant, useless.

The shark glides closer, and closer.

"Yep, that's Thanatos," Jesse sighs. "We're done for."

 

"Come on, Nick, we need to move," persuades Seiji, shaking his shoulder lightly.

"Move? Move where?" Nicholas asks, his voice faintly curious.

"It's too late," echoes Jesse, seemingly lost in his own thoughts. Seiji groans in frustration.

"Oh, no. No way. You're not giving up now," Seiji snaps. "Nicholas Cox. Look at me."

Nick blinks and turns to look at him. His amber eyes are alarmingly blank.

"We," Seiji enunciates, "are going to get out of this. Okay? We're going to go and hide in one of those old wells, and we're going to make it, because a shark like that is _slow_." Seiji presses their foreheads together with a clink, mask meeting mask. Nick looks at him in bewilderment.

"You're the fastest diver I know. And the bravest. So when I say go, take Jesse and swim for the well, okay?"

A light clicks on in Nick's eyes, the conversation sparking an earlier memory. But this isn't a tiger shark Seiji is facing down. It's a man-eater, a killer, and the Pulsar isn't going to work here.

Seiji is the bait.

"No," Nicholas protests, realizing. "No, Seiji, I'm not--"

Seiji pulls back and releases Nick's hands.

"Go," Seiji says.

"I won't," Nicholas declares, but he's suddenly moving backwards. Jesse's dragging him to the well.

"Come on," Jesse sighs, "it's our best chance. Seiji will catch up in a second."

"No! Seiji, wait!" Nick calls, but Seiji swims off and doesn't look back.


	8. Chapter 8

"We should be safe down here," Jesse reassures Nick as they descend into the well.

"Seiji!" Nicholas hollers. Jesse rolls his eyes.

"He'll be fine, okay? I promise," Jesse tells him, and finally Nicholas stops kicking and fighting.

"If something happens to him, I'm gonna kill you," Nick threatens. Jesse only smiles and points to the small shadow passing overhead. Nicholas' face lights up as Seiji makes it through the well entrance. Just in time-- Thanatos' bite misses Seiji's flippers by seconds.

Almost instantly, Nicholas' face closes off and resumes its usual state of rage. Jesse raises an eyebrow. The boy's clearly smitten.

"What were you _thinking_ ?!" Nick all but screams into Seiji's face.

Seiji crosses arms. "What? I'm sorry, okay? The important thing is that we're fine now, we can wait for the shark to give up and go home."

"No, the important thing is _not_ that we're fine now, the important thing is that--" Nicholas flounders, "that-- you can't _do_ that!"

Jesse turns his attention away from the two-- they'll work it out eventually, as couples do, he reasons-- and instead studies the inside of the well. There's all sorts of fossil-looking things embedded in the rock, seashells and spiraled snails dotting the grayish walls. Jesse traces the line of the stone with a finger, and frowns.

"Looks like this well goes on forever..." Jesse muses.

He's struck by an idea.

"Seiji, Nick," calls out Jesse, swimming back up to the divers. Sure enough, their argument has somehow devolved into a squabble about whose diving suit is shinier.

"Look," Jesse says, carefully prying the two apart. "Isn't this really long and deep for a well?"

"A secret entrance," Seiji realizes.

"To Valka Castle," Jesse confirms.

Nick looks down at the passage, then up at Jesse, then over at Seiji-- argument long ago forgotten, or at least forgiven.

"Race you there!" he yells.

Jesse and Seiji exchange exasperated looks before following.

 

"It's like an enormous tower," Jesse breathes.

Seiji nods silently in agreement. The well passage has leveled out into a large circular room. The ocean waters have lightened somewhat in color, moonlight somehow making its way down to the bottom of the ocean. Pale yellow disc-shaped fish flutter around the room delicately, a few even approaching the divers to nose curiously at them.

Nicholas pokes at a fish experimentally, and the whole shoal instantly flash away into unseen cracks and crevices, leaving the chamber empty. Seiji gives Nick a chiding look.

At first glance, the chamber is a dead end, but the divers soon realize there's an opening in the ceiling. They swim through carefully, moving upwards, the moonlight getting stronger.

This passage opens into an even larger chamber, decorated in an old Greek-looking style. A large dome-like roof extends over them, adorned with a faded illustration of Anaximander's world map. Skylights dot the chamber's upper walls, some blocked, some open and admitting bright shards of light from the world far up above.

Nicholas whistles as he admires the chamber's walls, covered in faded mosaics. (The sound is transmitted across the comm as more of a ear-splitting squawk. Seiji grimaces.)

"Wow... pretty detailed. What's this scene?" Nicholas wonders.

"There's some words below it in Latin," Jesse observes, swimming to Nick's side. "Apparently this guy on his knees is... prince Laurel? Wait, no, it's prince Laurent. Or king, or something. This one," he says, pointing at a curly-haired figure, "is Damen, he's trying to save the other guy's life. Aw, that's cute."

"Same here, I think," Nicholas notices, tapping a different mosaic. "The Damen dude's on a horse, he's throwing a spear and saving that guy's life again."

"And again," Jesse says, indicating a larger panel. "Laurent's surrounded by... 'assassin warriors.' Nice, Damen's killing all of them. Oh, look over here. Laurent's saving the Damen dude this time, he's swinging a sword. This is actually really cool-- uh, that's... graphic," Jesse coughs. "Moving on."

"Do you two art critics have some time to spare?" cuts in Seiji.

Nicholas and Jesse look up. Seiji's studying a small gate built into the chamber wall.

"Jesse, translation?" Seiji asks.

Nick and Jesse join Seiji by the gate. Jesse leans over and studies the Latin on the gate arch.

"Hmm. It says something about beware a terrible fate, face a challenger, yada yada, peril awaits on the other side. The challenger is different for each... for each mosaic." Jesse frowns.

"So basically, we choose a number," Jesse says, motioning at a dial set in the gate, "go through this door, and face the challenger for the corresponding mosaic."

Nick squints at the closest mosaic, and sure enough, the top corner is engraved with a small number.

"Would the mechanism even work, though, after all these years?" asks Seiji.

"These pictures look in good shape. Dial turns," Nick notes, giving the gate knob a spin. "I'm not really sure what this challenger is, but no reason to think it wouldn't work."

"So... which mosaic should we pick?" Jesse asks.

The trio glide around the room. They agree to avoid the violent mosaics, which brings it down to seven scenes.

"Not this one either," says Jesse, squinting at a depiction of a passionate scene in a bathhouse. "Or any of... these. I, uh, don't really want to know what the _challenge_ might be."

The divers continue eliminating mosaics, until the only one left is the first scene Nicholas saw, the Damen dude pleading for Laurent's life.

"Looks innocent enough," Nick agrees. "Number 5 it is."

Carefully, Jesse turns the dial. He hesitates for only a moment before pressing down. Something deep inside the stone clicks, and the chamber's gate immediately yawns open.

With the force of a whirlpool, Nicholas, Seiji, and Jesse are sucked inside.

 

The next few moments are somewhat of a blur-- the powerful current pulling Seiji through the old gateway, the smack of his shoulder against a wall, an earth-shaking _thump_ as a gate swings closed. And almost but not quite simultameously, another gate opening, a surge of water pushing Seiji out onto a hard marble floor.

Seiji is dizzy-- he's bumped his head in all the chaos-- and it takes him a minute to get hold of his surroundings. When he does, he realizes that he's no longer swimming, that he's no longer immersed in water.

"An airlock," Jesse breathes. Quite literally, as Jesse's taken off his mask. Seiji cautiously does the same-- the air is faintly dusty and smells of fish, but it's breathable.

Nicholas shakily gets to his feet. He nearly falls, and Seiji reaches out a hand to steady him. Surprisingly, Nick takes it.

"I guess this is Valka Castle," Seiji sighs, and nearly yelps when Nicholas grips his hand hard.

"Um," Nick squeaks. "I think I found the challenger."


	9. Chapter 9

Of all the things Seiji had imagined doing in Valka Castle, he'd never considered being chased down corridors by a maniacal, animatronic executioner.

"This is your fault," Seiji gasps at Nicholas. Seiji's dragging what feels like several tons of diving gear behind him, and his arms are already screaming in agony.

"What? This is _your_ fault too! You agreed to pick number 5!" protests Nick.

"Shut up and run," barks Jesse.

Seiji glances behind them. Not far back, the executioner is trotting through the hallway. Its bronze joints gleam like they're brand new, and it clutches a wickedly sharp axe in a bear-like paw. The machine's eyes shine red as it tracks them.

The trio run on and on, passing through ornate ballrooms and dilapidated parlors, all of the rooms colorless and lit by eerie moonlight. Always, the footsteps of the executioner echo behind them.

"We can't keep this up," Seiji pants.

The group have paused to take shelter in a dusty kitchen. They're all breathing heavily. Nicholas sprawls across the floor, exhausted.

"This castle is a maze. There's no way out," Jesse announces.

"I'm dreaming, aren't I," groans Nicholas. "This is a nightmare."

Seiji is about to reply when he hears a strange echoing sound. Not the steady _clank-clank-clank_ of the executioner, something else. He strains his ear to listen.

"What's that? Maybe it's my alarm clock," Nicholas suggests hopefully. "Can I wake up now?"

"No, it's some sort of song," says Jesse.  _The Song of Dragons_ _,_ Seiji realizes.

"Come on, Nick," Seiji orders, pulling him up. "One last run."

"I don't wanna go," Nicholas complains, but he dusts himself off, and the trio make their way towards the melody.

 

Somewhere along the way, the footsteps of the executioner have faded off into the distance. Still, the divers are completely and utterly lost-- but the song, when it's heard, is louder than ever. Three notes in succession: one high in pitch, one low, one medium-pitched and held longer.

For a few minutes, for a few hours-- time seems to stretch on forever as they trudge through hallways, dragging their diving gear, still hopeful of finding an exit. Finally, they come across a small room, not unlike an office. There's a worn wooden bookcase by the wall and a large painting opposite.

"A portrait of King Laurent," Jesse reads, examining the room's painting. "Beneath it, in Latin:  _Even after I'm gone, I watch this door forever, to protect this treasure from thieves._ "

"Probably a trap," Nicholas notes, "I mean, look at those eyes. He's planned something. You can tell." Nick scowls at the painting for good measure.

" _Even after I'm gone, I watch this door,_ " Seiji repeats. "I watch this door..."

Seiji crosses the room, inspecting the bookcase more closely. It's covered in decomposing, rotten books, except for one volume in good-- in fact, in near-perfect condition. The surviving book is not made of wood and leather, as the others are. It's made of stone.

Seiji presses on the book's spine, and there's an answering click. Seiji steps back as a hidden door swings open: there's a small adjoining space. It's pitch black.

Nobody says anything for a moment. Seiji peers deep into the darkness.

Nick joins Seiji's side. Jesse drops their diving gear, rummaging through the hastily-bound pack for flashlights. He hands them out, and the three divers turn them on.

"Ready?" Jesse asks.

The three exchange looks, then file into the small space.

 

Nicholas steps through the secret doorway cautiously. This new room appears to be a vault, a single desk in the center. The room's small and oddly shaped, rectangular but somehow deformed. Nicholas realizes not only that the ground is littered by chips of rock, but also that a whole half of the room has just been _crushed_ by what's apparently a large boulder.

Nick shines his flashlight through the cracks in the rocky "wall". A single drop of water eases down. Nick thinks of the intense pressure of the tons and tons of ocean water pressing down on Valka Castle, and he tightens his grip on his flashlight.

Jesse kneels to inspect the room's desk, fiddling with something.

"Nick, do you hear that?" Seiji asks.

"The song? Nah. But I heard it a while ago," Nicholas replies.

"No, not that, I mean..." Seiji stops. "The door!"

Nick lunges as the door begins to creak shut, but his fingers miss the handle by inches. And while the front of the door may have been faced with a wooden bookcase, the back side is lined with plates of silvery metal.

"Yeah, o- _kay_ , this is a trap," sighs Nicholas. He runs his hand through his hair distractedly.

Seiji pulls at the handles of the door halfheartedly, but it's locked.

"All right. So. We need to look for clues, right? Is that what we do?" Nick chatters.

"Yes. For all we know, the treasure might be in this room," Seiji replies. "Jesse?"

Seiji frowns. He flicks over his flashlight to Jesse, who hasn't spoken in a while. The light beams across Jesse's white diving suit, illuminating his shoulders from the back.

"The treasure," Jesse muses. He turns around slowly. "You mean this?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comments make authors happy! \ (^-^) /


	10. Chapter 10

"I'm here," Harvard snaps. "Where's Aiden?"

Harvard's just finished mooring his boat at Ciceros Village. The night air is cold and still.

Outwardly, Harvard seems calm and composed as if nothing's wrong, but small details give away his tension-- the smoking engine of a boat that's been raced all the way to the coast, the way he's clutching his phone in a death grip.

"All right," responds a disembodied voice, "but first, you have to make a promise not to continue."

"Continue? Look, I have to get back to the strait."

Harvard nearly crushes his phone in a death grip as he waits for Aiden's kidnapper to reply, but he can only pick up the buzz of voices muttering back and forth.

"People are waiting for me," Harvard insists. "If Seiji or Nick or Jesse gets in trouble--"

The buzz stops suddenly.

"Jesse Coste? What's Jesse doing there?" the kidnapper demands, and Harvard is about to respond when they suddenly seem to change their mind.

"It doesn't matter," the voice hums, "Thanatos will have gotten them by now. Oh, I see. There go all three at once. And all three of them. Perfect."

"Where. Is. Aiden," Harvard demands, his blood running cold.

"See that hotel on your right? In there, room 304," the voice says, and Harvard's already sprinting, his ankle twinging with each stride. The clerk doesn't have time to react as Harvard charges towards the stairwell, taking the steps three at a time.

Room 304's door is hanging open, and Harvard pokes his head inside without a second thought.

He's never been more relieved to see that golden mane of hair in his entire life.

Aiden squeaks, caught mid-yawn as Harvard wraps his arms around him. Harvard takes a shaky breath, inhaling Aiden's familiar lemony smell.

"Er... Harvard? What are you doing here?" Aiden asks, and in a rush, Harvard realizes that Aiden's perfectly fine, curled up on a sofa with a book and a cup of hot cocoa.

"And yes, I can read," adds Aiden with a glint of amusement, poking fun at Harvard's still-shocked expression. Underneath the joke, though, Harvard can tell that Aiden really is concerned.

Harvard suddenly realizes that he's basically sitting in Aiden's lap, and he quickly disentangles himself and steps back.

"What are _you_ doing here?" Harvard repeats. "I thought you said that you'd call Jesse, and then look through Dante's old library with Bobby?"

"I did! Then I asked my dad to buy me a plane ticket, so I could see you." Aiden grins. He holds up the book he's reading, and Harvard realizes that it's a diary-- Dante's diary.

"Bobby and I found this. Don't worry, it's more of a journal than a personal thing. Well, mostly. You wouldn't believe how much of it's filled with stuff from Jesse Coste."

"They knew each other?" Harvard asks.

Aiden snorts. His face is lit a warm marigold color by the fireplace. "Putting it lightly. The diary's full of romantic poems and letters and shit, seems like whatever it was went on for two or three years. Then they had some sort of argument that Dante felt guilty about. Then the journal ended."

"You don't think--"

"--that Jesse had a part in the accident?" Aiden shrugged. He leaned back on the sofa. "I doubt it. I've known Jesse for a while, but, well."

"I left him with Seiji and Nick," Harvard blurts. "We need to get back!"

"Whoa, Harvard," Aiden protests, catching his sleeve. "How about I tell you about the rest of the diary? And how about you tell me why you came barging into my hotel room? Jesse isn't this big bad evil villain. There's no rush."

"But Thanatos--"

"Come on," Aiden coaxes, pulling him to sit on the sofa, and Harvard is _so_ tempted just to sit by the fireplace and to be with Aiden.

But Seiji and Nick could be in trouble.

"We can talk on the boat," Harvard compromises. Some emotion flutters across Aiden's face-- disappointment? Aiden pouts and nods. The two make their way back to the dock.

 

"So here's what the rest of the diary was about," begins Aiden, once the boat is underway.

"Before Dante died, he was searching for something called the Pacifica treasure. There are three blue pendants, keys for the treasure, and the 'Song of Dragons' gives their locations.

"Dante managed to find two of these pendants: one from the Cortica River, and one from the coast of Canada. Sounded like he had to face off electric eels and piranhas for the first pendant, and giant squids and hypothermia for the second. Apparently, getting these pendants is really tricky. Anyway. Dante planned to dive in the Red Sea for the third."

"He rented a submarine," Harvard recalls, remembering back to when Kings Row's director first told him the story. "But there was an accident. The engine failed and the air supply ran out."

"Right. But here's a letter from Jesse warning Dante not to dive," Aiden says. "He writes, 'I know you don't want to talk to me, but I'm telling you, don't do this.' I mean, even I'll admit that's kind of suspicious. Did Jesse not want him to find the treasure or something? Or did he want the treasure for himself?"

Harvard recalls Aiden's "kidnapping" phone call with a rush, and he relates to Aiden how the mysterious caller had tried to make him promise to stop following the clues.

"Wait," Aiden remarks. "Then it couldn't have been Jesse. He's still diving, he couldn't have called."

"Unless he dumped Seiji and Nick somewhere. Or he left them to that shark, or..." Harvard trails off, realizing just how bad his decision to run off and rescue Aiden was. The boat engine hums steadily in the background, as if in agreement.

His thoughts are interrupted by Aiden gently turning him around and wrapping his arms around Harvard's neck. It's not the usual throwaway hug that Aiden gives him, arm casually tossed over Harvard's shoulders, and Harvard raises an eyebrow.

"Thanks for coming after me," Aiden tells him-- _sincerely_ tells him-- brilliant green eyes staring at him inches away. Not for the first time, Harvard notices what an ethereal color Aiden's eyes are, lined perfectly by long eyelashes.

His eyes are just too hard to look away from. And too easy, far too easy, to fall into.

Harvard leans forward.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll have you know I wrote the "arm casually tossed over Harvard's shoulders" bit before #3 came out, thanks very much :P  
> and well, jante seems to be in its death throes but I'm gonna carry on ✊


	11. Chapter 11

Jesse's opened a drawer in the table, pulling out a flute-like pendant made of lapis lazuli. It's decorated by a familiar series of notches and gaps, and instantly, Nick recognizes it. A third pendant?

"It's--" Nicholas.

"Beautiful," Seiji blurts. Nick gapes at him as if he's gone crazy. Seiji shoots him a look, but Nick's not sure what Seiji's trying to get across.

"It's been preserved so carefully. Do you recognize the markings?" Seiji asks Jesse. He narrows his eyes at Nicholas. Nick is puzzled. Does he have something on his face?

"It seems familiar, I suppose. But this must be incredibly valuable," Jesse muses, squinting. "I've been here for months, and I've never come across anything like this. Still..."

"Well, I was gonna say--" _it looks like this pendant I have_ , Nicholas tries to say, but Seiji claps a hand over his mouth.

"Mmmh!" protests Nicholas against rubber diving gloves. Seiji does some sort of side-nod at Jesse. Nick furrows his eyebrows in confusion.

Seiji rolls his eyes up to the ceiling, and he whispers in Nick's ear, "Don't trust Jesse."

Nicholas blinks. He raises his head to see Jesse studying the two of them, poised with lapis lazuli treasure with hand.

Okay, Nick  _had_ been accusing Jesse of murdering Dante earlier, but that was just nerves and stress. He'd actually gotten to like him over their Valka Castle escapade. Could Jesse really have...

Jesse raises an elegant eyebrow, curiously watching Seiji and Nick. He's starting to suspect something. Trying not to seem suspicious-- and  _definitely_  seeming suspicious-- Seiji removes his hand from Nick's mouth.

 _Come on. Create a distraction. Think of something to say, anything_ , Nick tells his brain.

 _No problem_ , his brain responds.

"Your eyes are pretty," Nicholas tells Seiji, and Nick immediately wishes the ocean would just flood down into the room and drown him right there.

_NOT THAT._

Jesse snickers and turns away, inspecting the blue pendant once again. Seiji's cheeks are a rosy pink. His blushing is kind of cute, if Nick is honest with himself, but also... unexpected?

"What... what the hell was that for?!" Seiji hisses.

Or Seiji's just angry. Of course. Maybe Seiji doesn't like attention, Nicholas thinks.

Nick considers this new fact for a while, weighing pros and cons. Sure, he's on relatively good terms with Seiji, and sure, they've stopped actively arguing, but Nick feels that he has some leeway to annoy Seiji a little.

"What was what for?" asks Nicholas. And he winks.

Seiji's cheeks go from pink to strawberry red, and Nick barely manages to keep a straight face. He fights a strange urge to smile. Yep, he's doing this more often, even if it means making Seiji mad. It's worth it.

"Sorry to interrupt," coughs Jesse, "but we should really start to try to get out of here."

 

Jesse points to an amassing pool of water on the floor, and Seiji watches curiously as a single drop _plops_ into the puddle.

Ocean water is leaking through the roof of the vault.

"Oh, come on," complains Nicholas. He glares at the puddle. His eyebrows scrunch up. A tiny moue of frustration spreads across his lips.

 _Goddammit, focus_ , thinks Seiji.

Seiji reaches back and tugs on the vault door a second time. It's still tightly locked.

"There has to be some sort of deactivation somewhere," Seiji says.

"Does there?" demands Nicholas.

"Yes," Seiji declares. "There always is."

"Unless it got crushed by those rocks."

"Nicholas, shut up."

"Make me."

" _Merde_ ," Seiji mutters. Nicholas doesn't hear, thankfully.

"Er... there's a strange design on the top of this table," Jesse suggests, saving Seiji from his dilemma. "Looks like they might be buttons-- wonder if I press this one-- oh, wait, no--"

Jesse yelps as the leak from the roof flares, turning into a trickle. Water drops splatter everywhere. The puddle laps at Jesse's toes, and he skips backwards.

"You're wearing flippers," Nicholas notes wryly. For a moment, Seiji fears that the water might be acidified or poisonous, but Jesse only huffs, "I was _surprised_."

"Just turn it off quickly," barks Seiji.

"Okay, okay, I'll--" Jesse's finger hovers over the table.

"Wait--"

Jesse presses another button, and the trickle of water widens into a steady stream. The pool is rising  _insanely_ quickly. The water's almost up to their ankles now, and it's swelling fast. Seiji glances up at the rocky ceiling. There's nowhere to escape.

Then an idea hits Seiji, and he feels an infinite feeling of relief.

"Diving masks," Seiji realizes. "We have enough air in our tanks to... figure this... out..."

He turns in a circle. The masks, the tanks, the gear, where are they?

"I left them in the other room," confesses Jesse, his face pale.

"You _didn't_ ," growls Nicholas.

"No time for an argument," Seiji says briskly. His heart is starting to jitter, he swears his legs are shaking, calf-deep in cold water as they are, but Seiji tries to maintain his appearance of calm. "Jesse, what's on the table?"

"Okay, okay. Let me see," Jesse hums, bending closer to look. "So, three buttons, two of them I already pushed. Below the buttons there's this tsunami carving and a lever..."

"Don't touch it!" Seiji and Nicholas shout in unison.

"Yeah, I figured that out already. Below that, there's more Latin on this. Oh, that is  _not_ funny."

"What?" Nicholas asks.

"It says... well, the translation would be something like, _Suckers. -Laurent._ "

Nick huffs and crosses his arms, feeling personally attacked.

The water rises to their knees, then to their waists. The divers stand there pondering what to do next, or at least, Jesse and Seiji ponder what to do next. Nick paces disconsolately, sloshing around water, occasionally snarling insults at the painting in the other room.

Jesse sighs. "Look, I think we should at least try pushing this button here. Fair enough?"

"It's just gonna make it go faster," Nicholas mutters. "But sure."

Jesse glances at Seiji. Seiji shrugs. Jesse presses the button. The stream of water gushes out even faster.

"Told you so!"

"Dammit. Okay, what about the lever?"

"No way!" Nicholas fires back. "You said there was a tsunami thing next to it, right? Tsunami equals big wave. Big wave equals drowning." Nick gesticulates wildly with his hands, pointing at the roof and the ocean up above them.

"Nick--"

"Nope!"

The water is chest-high. The table is submerged. The roof is only a few feet above their heads-- there's nowhere to go.


	12. Chapter 12

"We've only got minutes, if not seconds, okay?" Jesse fumes. "Seiji? Right? We have to try pulling the lever!"

"No!" Nick insists.

" _Argh_. Seiji, tell him!"

Jesse's voice seems to echo through the room.

_Tell him!_

The constant whoosh of water seems muted and distant.

"I'm going to die anyway," Seiji mutters, half-swimming, half-walking over to Nicholas.

But Nick hears him say that, and the look in his eyes makes Seiji stop in his tracks. Seiji thought he'd seen Nick angry before. He was wrong.

"Katayama. You are _not_ going to die," vows Nicholas. His face is composed. Jaw set. It’s Nick's turn to reassure him, apparently.

"Realistically, though--"

"You _won't_ ," Nicholas tells him, and his voice is so certain, so absolutely certain, that he could have told Seiji that Bobby was a cold-blooded murderer and Seiji would have believed him.

Seiji isn't exactly sure how to respond, but his face does the work for him, his mouth twitching into a smile and his cheeks getting warm.

 _Oh god, not this again_ , Seiji thinks. But Nicholas doesn't grin or smirk, he smiles back at him-- just smiles-- and somehow that's even worse.

They tread water, still smiling at each other, the tops of their heads brushing the ceiling.

It's not a terrible way to die. Not yet.

 

The "not yet" never happens, as it turns out, as the water level begins to plummet. In seconds, the pool shrinks into a puddle. The hidden door neatly swings open, revealing Laurent's serene face.

For a moment Seiji thinks that Nicholas' smile has magical powers or something, but he quickly expels that thought.

"I pulled the lever," gasps Jesse, wet hair strewn all over his forehead. "The tsunami lever. Makes the water drain out."

Seiji raises an eyebrow. Nick's jaw drops open. He spins around.

"Wait, Nick--" Seiji

"That _bitch_!" Nick accuses, lunging towards the painting and actually punching it.

"Nick, hold on, hold on," coaxes Seiji, pulling the aggravated boy back. Seiji tries to stop smiling, but for some reason can’t. "That's just a portrait."

"Yeah, but it's symbolic," retorts Nicholas, giving the king a rude gesture. Laurent beams back amiably.

"Hello? Hello, anyone there?" crackles a faint voice. Seiji glances at the pile of discarded equipment-- but no, the comms are still at their belts. Obviously. But then it's just coincidence that Harvard is calling now. And just coincidence that he hadn't been answering before. Seiji frowns.

"Yes? Harvard?" Nicholas responds.

"Oh, nope, this is Aiden. Long story short, someone kidnapped me-- well, _kidnapped_ me, pretended to kidnap me, I'm doing air quotes but you can't see them, and Harvard rushed off. That's why he hasn't been answering. But we're back now! Are you guys okay?"

The story is even less convincing than Jesse's-- it seems like ages ago that they'd spotted that rogue flashlight in the Triton Village Ruins-- but all the same, Seiji feels guilty for doubting Harvard for even a second.

"We're fine," Nick replies automatically. "Me and Seiji and Jesse, we're all here. But it'd be great if you could pick us up somehow, there's a robot chasing after us."

A brief silence.

"Uh, you mean the shark? Thanatos?"

"Nope," chimes Nicholas, "A demonic killing machine trying to cut our throats."

"Um. Right. Uh, we'll try to get right above your current position. Beyond that--"

"We'll figure it out," cuts in Jesse.

 

Punching the portrait turns out to be actually useful, as the divers find out. It’s enormously cliché, but the painting turns on a hinge, revealing a passage back to the original airlock. With relief, the divers don their gear and enter the ocean once again.

With even more relief, they realize that Thanatos is nowhere to be seen, as they swim through the well and up to the surface.

As the divers pause, taking care not to ascend too quickly, Seiji glimpses the silhouette of the boat up above. Faintly visible are figures of two people standing on the deck.

Seiji continues swimming and surfaces, and sees Harvard and Aiden hugging: Harvard wearing a gray Ciceros tourist T-shirt, and Aiden wearing what looks oddly like a pair of pajamas, but is stylish nevertheless.

And Seiji's just in time to hear Aiden say, "Thanks for coming after me."

Harvard leans forward.

Aiden leans forward.

They kiss.

Aiden's already got his arms wrapped around Harvard's neck. He pulls him closer, they kiss some more.

It's actually quite romantic, Seiji thinks. The sun's just beginning to rise behind the two, painting the sky a peachy pink.

Nick surfaces beside Seiji and pulls off his mask. He grins and, nudging Seiji, lets out a piercing whistle.

Harvard stumbles back, looking a bit flushed, but also looking shocked. _Seriously_ shocked. Aiden opens his eyes, appearing mildly annoyed.

"Nick! Seiji! You're alive!" Harvard exclaims.

"Er, yeah?" Nick questions, as the two climb onto the boat, "Weren't you just talking to us? Jesse's here too, apparently Aiden sent him to keep us safe or something."

"Wait..." says Harvard, frowning.

Jesse joins them on the deck.

"Hey, Aiden," Jesse greets him. Aiden frowns and tilts his head, pulling out some sort of journal.

"You have something to explain, Jess," Aiden says, marching up to face Jesse nose-to-nose. He dangles a cut-out letter in front of Jesse's face.

Jesse's face flushes red.

"What's that?" Nick wants to know. Seiji cranes his head and reads aloud the elegant cursive on the letter.

_“I know you don't want to talk to me, but I'm telling you, don't do this.”_

“I’m not sure now is really the time, I mean..." Jesse trails off.

Aiden frowns at him, green eyes practically shooting laser beams.

"I think it is. Right now, Harvard and I have a theory all about how you murdered Dante Rossi, and I really hope it's as crazy as it sounds."

"Jesse wouldn't do that!" defends Nicholas. Seiji notices that Nick is surprisingly unhappy to hear his earlier accusations being affirmed.

“Well...” And Aiden gives Nick and Seiji a quick overview of the theory highlights, Harvard interjecting occasionally: Jesse dating Dante, then getting in an argument with him, then getting jealous and sabotaging Dante so that he could find the pendants first (and by extension get the Pacifica treasure all to himself).

"But _still_!" Nick protests, after Aiden is finished.

Jesse sighs deeply. The eyes of the divers are on him as he moves towards a bench and sits down.

"I'll just get this out, then. First of all, _I didn't kill Dante_."

"Told you," mutters Nick.

Seiji muffles him with a hand. Nick sticks out his tongue and licks him, and Seiji pulls back, giving him the evil eye. Nick grins.

"But some of it's true. I _was_ dating Dante, we broke up over a disagreement and so on. But I wasn't jealous over... well… that's not the point. Anyway, I found out that Dante’s tip about the pendant was faked."

"A false trail?" Harvard asks.

Jesse nods. "Someone else was trying to sabotage Dante. The report of the Song in the Red Sea was made up. The third pendant was here, in Ciceros. It wasn't me, I promise." He gestures at the letter. "I tried to stop him. I tried to talk to him. But Dante’s stubborn. That's how he died, I think-- Dante kept diving to the last minute because he was so close to completing the pendant.

“I should've dived for the pendants and kept going for the treasure by myself, to finish what Dante started, but I wasn't thinking straight. I... blamed himself for not being with him. When I changed my mind, the Kings Row search team had already gotten there. And the pendants ended up with Seiji and Harvard.

"Which is fine by me," Jesse clarifies, shrugging. "As long as the pendants aren't in the hands of the twins."

 


	13. Chapter 13

Something clicks in Harvard's mind. _Twins... Aiden's kidnapping..._

"I don't have proof that they were the ones responsible," Jesse says, "but the twins were the ones who told Dante about the tip-off, about the Song being heard in the Red Sea. Also, they were supposed to accompany Dante on the trip, but at the last moment they called in sick. The twins never get sick."

"The phone call," Harvard realizes. Four faces turn towards him. Aiden raises an eyebrow, watching him curiously, and this makes it very difficult for Harvard to focus. Some corner of his mind keeps flashing memories at him, Aiden's lips on his, familiar arms pulling him closer-- oh, nope, Harvard has to focus.

"In the phone call I got, er, I thought there was something funny about the way the voice spoke. It kept changing its mind, as if it was talking to itself. It might have been--"

"Two voices," Seiji suggests.

"Aster and Thomas Leventis," Jesse confirms. "We're going to beat them to the treasure, and we're going to catch them once and for all."

The crew share a heroic moment, feeling imbued with a grand sense of purpose. Nick tries to stand up, and somehow manages to trip over his own feet, and the moment's broken.

But there's still something bothering Harvard. Not Aiden creeping closer and stealing an arm around his waist, that's _totally_ fine with Harvard.

"One more thing," Harvard addresses the divers. "When you guys surfaced, you said something like _weren't you just talking to us?_ , right?"

"Yeah, we heard you-- er, Aiden-- over the communications," Nick replies.

Harvard and Aiden exchange a look.

"That wasn't us," they chime.

"Then..."

Jesse raises a finger. "I can think of a simple solution."

"Yeah?" Nick asks.

"That castle's haunted."

The divers are obviously creeped out, to say the least, and a bout of bickering begins.

 

Eventually, Jesse brings out the third pendant, and the crew focus again.

It fits the two existing pendants, and just as before, there's a click as a mechanism turns and settles. Jesse squints at the surface, and sees that the gaps and notches have formed a new pattern.

With a twinge of nostalgia, Jesse recognizes the symbols-- he remembers them from long nights of poring over books, of staying up past midnight in a hopeless attempt to find Dante again, even when Dante was long gone.

"Egypt," Jesse sighs. "I think this is a poem about a point on the Nile River. That's not far from here."

Nicholas frowns and asks, "Isn't the Nile pretty shallow?"

"Well, the river is deeper in some areas," Jesse defends.

"The land would have been different when this treasure was buried," Seiji adds, and Nicholas nods.

Aiden hums, "We should be able to take a direct flight there. I'm sure my dad won't have a problem--"

Harvard starts to protest, and Aiden leans forward and flutters a kiss across Harvard's lips. Jesse grins. Harvard looks predictably flustered, but what's really important is that Jesse can't remember the last time he's seen Aiden genuinely this happy.

"The Nile River it is," Jesse summarizes. "Let's go."

 

A day passes, and Nicholas is sitting on the edge of a new boat, dangling his flippered feet into the Nile River. Seiji drops down to sit next to him.

Nick grins at Seiji. Honestly, it surprises Nicholas just how instinctive of a gesture this has become. Smiling at Seiji is just something he does now. He doesn't really stop to think about it.

Seiji only ducks his head in a nod and turns away, but he's smiling too, Nick can tell.

The two sit there on the edge of the boat for a while, and Nick gazes out at the horizon. He'd have never guessed that he was in Egypt-- he'd thought that Egypt was all hot dry deserts, actually. But the river here is all pretty and mirror-like, a dark turquoise color. A couple hundred meters off, there's a lush and verdant bank, practically bursting with greenery.

It _is_ hot, though. Nick kicks upward, using his flippers to splash droplets over Seiji.

Seiji gasps in surprise, almost starting to giggle, and Nick catches his eyes.

And, well. Seiji's eyes are actually gorgeous, Nicholas notices. Purely objectively. Just as a statement of fact, of course. They're particularly gorgeous when Seiji is happy and laughing, like he is now. And if Nick is honest with himself, he'd noticed just how amazing they are (or Seiji is, whichever) a long time ago-- he'd just shoved it away as something to ignore while arguing with Seiji.

Nicholas will admit that Seiji isn't the best at first impressions, or at being polite in general. He'd thought that Seiji was an obnoxious, perfectly perfect snob. And as Nick knows firsthand, Seiji's excellent at pushing people away. But at the same time, Nick realizes that Seiji's also someone who's almost scared to get to know others. He's someone who would sacrifice himself for people he hates, someone who genuinely cares about people.

The thing is, Seiji's not a perfect snob. There's the lapses in his harsh demeanor, the few strands escaping his flawlessly styled hair. The flushed face he gets whenever Nick compliments him. The smile that spreads across his face whenever Nick makes a bad joke. Maybe it's just wishful thinking, but Nick feels like he's gotten to know Seiji, under that stone cold facade.

On impulse, Nicholas leans his head against Seiji's shoulder.

Nicholas can't remember exactly when Seiji turned from someone he _tolerated_ , to someone he _liked_ \-- genuinely, really liked-- to be around. Maybe it was when Seiji swam off to draw away Thanatos? Maybe when they were trying to get out of that flooding kill-box in Valka Castle?

He closes his eyes and relaxes. Seiji's shoulder is surprisingly comfy. The boat rocks softly, the river currents swish Nick's feet back and forth.

 

The strands of Nick's hair tickle Seiji's nose.

Seiji sneezes.

 

It is the most adorable sound in the universe.

This is when Seiji turns from someone Nicholas genuinely likes, to someone Nick has a massive crush on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the end is near! *rings that homer simpson bell*  
> let's see if I can finish this up in 2 or 3 chapters! I have a bunch of ideas for more fence stuff so yay~  
> I do have a lot of schoolwork piling up but we'll see how it goes XD  
> and thank you people for the support, means so much <3


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